Clinic and ambulatory blood pressure in a population-based sample of African Americans: the Jackson Heart Study

Blood pressure (BP) can differ substantially when measured in the clinic versus outside of the clinic setting. Few population-based studies with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) include African Americans. We calculated the prevalence of clinic hypertension and ABPM phenotypes among 1016 participants in the population-based Jackson Heart Study, an exclusively African-American cohort. Mean daytime systolic BP was higher than mean clinic systolic BP among participants not taking antihypertensive medication (127.1[standard deviation 12.8] vs. 124.5[15.7] mm Hg, respectively) and taking antihypertensive medication (131.2[13.6] vs. 130.0[15.6] mm Hg, respectively). Mean daytime diastolic BP was higher than clinic diastolic BP among participants not taking antihypertensive medication (78.2[standard deviation 8.9] vs. 74.6[8.4] mm Hg, respectively) and taking antihypertensive medication (77.6[9.4] vs. 74.3[8.5] mm Hg, respectively). The prevalence of daytime hypertension was higher than clinic hypertension for participants not taking antihypertensive medication (31.8% vs. 14.3%) and taking antihypertensive medication (43.0% vs. 23.1%). A high percentage of participants not taking and taking antihypertensive medication had nocturnal hypertension (49.4% and 61.7%, respectively), white-coat hypertension (30.2% and 29.3%, respectively), masked hypertension (25.4% and 34.6%, respectively), and a nondipping BP pattern (62.4% and 69.6%, respectively). In conclusion, these data suggest hypertension may be misdiagnosed among African Americans without using ABPM.